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Al'Thanor (3.5 Creature)

The desert winds blow strangely tonight. The tribesmen cluster inside their underground homes. While the strange localised sandstorms are out, they do not dare leave the safety of their homes.

A few words and a few coins pressed into palms can reveal the reason. An Al'Thanor is near. A few more inquiries tell you that the Al'Thanor are mysterious stone beings that roam the deserts, dragging strange sandstorms behind them.

Nobody knows of their origin. Some claim they are elemental spirits. Others say that they are ancient constructs, left over by an unknown civilisation that once spanned the entire world. Others still claim that they are but infant forms of stranger beings and that much larger Al'Thanor have been glimpsed flying through the heavens themselves.

But one fact remains clear. Al'Thanor know things. Things thought to be hidden to all are seen by their all-seeing eye. Aside from their near prescient abilities, they collect great stores of knowledge in their long lives. Many tales have been told of battles won or lost, empires constructed or destroyed, all by the simple act of a man managing to track down an Al'Thanor and asking it a simple question.
They gladly answer any question posed to them but for a price. The price is usually information on a topic the Al'Thanor is interested in but can be anything, from a simple blue ribbon to an infant's still-beating heart.

Your heart leaps at this information. Long have you searched for the last remains of the Witchlord Barrinus. Today, you may have finally found a being that knows where it and it's arcane treasure is.

Without wasting any more time, you leave the underground residence of the tribe. They shout after you, warning about something to do with it's eye but you pay no heed. They had mentioned earlier that the Al'Thanor keep their eyes closed at all times, why would you have to worry about anything to do with their eyes? Not now, not with the completion of your quest finally within your grasp.

The sandstorm has died down but the Al'Thanor is still there, a massive blot against the horizon. You slowly walk towards it, surveying it's features. A massive pyramid of crumbling stone, the Al'Thanor did not look any different from any other desert monument.
That is, if you ignored the fact that it was hovering a few feet off the ground and that the whole structure hadn't been there half an hour ago.

Unsure what to do, you call out your question. For a moment, nothing happens. But then, with unusual speed, the pyramid swivelled. Up near the peak of the pyramid was a strange wrinkle in the stone.
As it began to open, you realise that it is a single mammoth eyelid. As it slowly opened, rays of light began to spill out.
You look up and meet it's gaze. Too late you remember the native's warnings.
For a moment, you see the eye and realise that it is not an eye at all. It is a hole cut into the universe, spilling radiant soul-destroying light from someplace Beyond. For a brief millisecond, you catch a glimpse of something inside the eye and it catches a glimpse of you.
Then all is dark.

Unknowable Gaze (Su):
The eye on an AlíThanor is not an eye at all. It is a window to an unknown plane of fire and light. Unknowable Gaze is a gaze attack. Anything looking at an AlíThanorís eye while it is open must make a Will Save with a DC of 46 or suffer from an insanity effect. After this, whether they pass the Insanity save or not, the being counts as then being struck by a prismatic spray effect. The save roll for this effect can be Will, Reflex or Fort depending on what effect strikes the being. The DC for any of them is 46.

Immunity to Magic (Ex):
An AlíThanor is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance. In addition, certain spells and effects function differently against the creature, as noted below.
A transmute rock to mud spell powerful enough to cover all of AlíThanor slows it (as the slow spell) for 2d6 rounds, with no saving throw, while a transmute mud to rock spell of similar power heals any lost hit points.

Painted Eye (Ex):
The eye of the AlíThanor is not fixed in place and can be moved around its body freely.

Sandshift (Su):
As a full-round action, an Al'Thanor can conjure up a small sandstorm to cover it entirely. Once the sand blows away, the Al-Thanor is gone. This effect is similar in all respects to a teleport spell with a caster level of 35. It is limited in that it can only use this ability while in a desert or arid environment and its destination must also be a desert or arid environment.

It casts these as a 18th level Wizard. An AlíThanor must always open itís eye to use any of itís spell-like abilities.

Knowledge Hoarder (Ex):
An Al'Thanor stores much knowledge over it's near infinite lifespan. An Al'Thanor's knowledge is gained over it's life. An Al'Thanor starts out life with no knowledge skill ranks. Every year from then, it gains one rank to put in a Knowledge skill of it's choice. While new Al'Thanor do exist and are being spawned from somewhere, most Al'Thanor are thousands of years old.

Superior Construction (Ex):
An Al'Thanor's has the Spelltouched Feats mentioned above in the Feat section even if they have never been exposed to any spell whatsoever. Likewise, despite not being Psionic in any way, an Al'Thanor counts as constantly having a Psionic Focus for using any of it's Psionic Feats. The Al'Thanor can also access the Divine Feats listed in the Feat section despite not being Divine.
The reason for these abilities are unknown but the current hypothesis is that whatever craftsmen that built them were just that good.

Languages:
An Al'Thanor starts off life with no languages known except for Alth, the language only spoken by Al'Thanor. But just as in the Knowledge Hoarder ability, they gain one bonus language for every year they live, even if they have never been exposed to it in the first place.
This strange ability along with the Knowledge Hoarder ability has led some to believe that the purpose of the Al'Thanor is to siphon all available knowledge from this universe and transfer it to their makers.

Re: Al'Thanor (3.5 Creature)

I like this fellow here a lot. Very atmospheric, very unique abilities. Good work.

Few things to look over in the build:

Very true and agree, its awesomely unique really like

CR should be higher than 20 because of Unknowable Gaze (Su), DC 49 against is very hard even at 20th lvl : Insanity than prismatic spray. Most chars cant make such a high roll so they mostly useless because of insanity. Is spell resistance apply?

A human wizard start with 18 int get +5(from levels) +5 from wish and have a +6 headband of intellect: at 20th level total 34(+12) has spell focus and greater spell focus on evocation(+2 to DC). Insanity is 7th level spell but use Heighten spell to increase to 9th: So DC should be 33(10+12int+2+9).(get bonus if you are a thayan wizard who specialized in evocation)
So it should be lower a DC and missing which based unknowable gaze: cha or con

How much is it cost on open market(or black) and construct prize(craft check, feats, spells...)?

I am willing and able to evaluate and critique homebrew material. PM me a link if you want an evaluation or a critique. If this applies to you too, put this in your sig.

Re: Al'Thanor (3.5 Creature)

Originally Posted by herbe

Very true and agree, its awesomely unique really like

CR should be higher than 20 because of Unknowable Gaze (Su), DC 49 against is very hard even at 20th lvl : Insanity than prismatic spray. Most chars cant make such a high roll so they mostly useless because of insanity. Is spell resistance apply?

Well, that's something I forgot to mentioned. Need to make mention the save DC is wisdom based.

However, as it is a supernatural ability, the save DC formula is 10 + Half HD + stat mod, so it wouldn't be as a 20th level spellcaster.

However, that is a very rough save. Insanity isn't so bad because you don't actually look at it, but also prismatic spray even if you don't look at it... that's where it becomes a bit high for its level.

Re: Al'Thanor (3.5 Creature)

Well, that's something I forgot to mentioned. Need to make mention the save DC is wisdom based.

However, as it is a supernatural ability, the save DC formula is 10 + Half HD + stat mod, so it wouldn't be as a 20th level spellcaster.

However, that is a very rough save. Insanity isn't so bad because you don't actually look at it, but also prismatic spray even if you don't look at it... that's where it becomes a bit high for its level.

Well, the Prismatic Spray effect is a gaze attack so if you don't look at the eye you'll presumably be fine. It's so massive you don't really have to look at the eye to see it anyway.

Changed the save ability so it's Cha based. It's still pretty high thanks to the naturally high HD of a moving pyramid.

Added it's skills and feats. Was then forced to give it a strange ability to justify some of the feats I felt would be useful.
Changed all the stuff that was wrong and gave it a special rule about it's Knowledge skills.

Re: Al'Thanor (3.5 Creature)

An Al'Thanor stores much knowledge over it's near infinite lifespan. An Al'Thanor's knowledge is gained over it's life. An Al'Thanor starts out life with no knowledge skill ranks. Every year from then, it gains one rank to put in a Knowledge skill of it's choice. While new Al'Thanor do exist and are being spawned from somewhere, most Al'Thanor are thousands of years old.